On the Nature of Mechanical Engineering Work-An Engineering Ethos

J. E. Holt
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Queensland, 4072, Australia

 

This paper suggests that day-to-day engineering work is energized by a unique belief system which forms an enduring and coherent engineering ethos. It proposes that the engineers' view of the word is at once formative, utilitarian and reductionist. Good engineering practice comes from the productive synergy of these elements. The paper identifies the main sources of influence in the formation of a distinct engineering world view as engineers progress through their education and subsequent career as academe, work and heritage. These lead to separate but complementary aspects of an engineering ethos, namely seeing the world as essentially problematic, as a commercial challenge and as an opportunity for continuous, useful, material development. It is argued that, together, these three outlooks empower the practice of engineering. The paper concludes that while the work environment usually actively promotes an integrated set of outlooks, contemporary engineering academe does not. Students emerge from their university experience with a poorly developed sense of what it means to be an engineer.